• Honey-Garlic Pork Ribs
• Buffalo Chicken Wings
• Seven Layer Taco Dip
• Coconut Shrimp

Maybe you want to check out 10 interesting ways to cook bacon. Or maybe you have some crockpot recipes to try out. They are the kitchen gadget every man needs.
Hopefully you can use some of these ideas. And have an awesome Superbowl party.

Unfortunately the IOC didn’t feel the same as myself, as they seemingly turned a blind eye on the atrocities that the Chinese government inflict on their own people and saw only the booming economy when awarding the 2008 summer games and not the veiled lies that the Chinese bid commitee promised.

At the time that the games were awarded the Chinese Olympic bid committee along with the Chinese government said that journalists would have unfettered internet (uncensored) access to work with reporting the games.

Now however, the Chinese government has backtracked on their promise to the media by saying that the media will not have full uncensored internet access but instead that they will have ‘sufficient’ access to the World Wide Web to report on the Games.

Internet pages containing the word Tibet will be blocked in the media village along with Amnesty International pages and any other page that the government doesn’t want their people and now apparently the world to know exist.

Here is my plea;

Boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games completely.

Boycott NBC during the Olympics and boycott the Games sponsors and the Beijing 2008 partners during the course of the games if not longer.

That list includes Worldwide Olympic sponsors Coca Cola, General Electric (GE), Johnson & Johnson, Kodak, McDonald’s, Manulife, Omega, Panasonic, Samsung, VISA and Lenovo.

Beijing 2008 partners Adidas, Air China, Volkswagen, Bank of China, CNC, CNPC, Sinopec, PICC and State Grid.

Finally minor sponsors and suppliers UPS, Haier, Budweiser, sohu.com, Tsingtao, Yanjing Beer, BHPbilliton, Staples, TechnoGym, Great Wall, BEIFA, Price Waterhouse Cooper, Mengna, SCHENKER Logistics, YA DU and others that you can find here.

The ‘others’ I’m unsure of as they are written in a text that suspiciously resembles a Chinese dialect.

However if you do sympathize with the little guy and have the same views towards this issue as myself join with me in turning a cold shoulder to the games and her sponsors.

The athletes, they won’t care, in fact I beg that they’ll understand. They are there to win, exposure can come after they do that. And if you really want to catch some of the action, catch it on YouTube.

Some sponsors will be harder than others to boycott, I don’t remember the last time Kodak had anything to do with my life, or Air China for that matter but I’m a two can of Coke a day kinda guy and have a guilty pleasure in McDonald‘s. But I’m going to take a break for a few weeks if not longer.

The Games which are about human triumphs, being held in a country where the ‘people’ have no say says to me that the IOC is more interested in money than the plight of the oppressed. In my mind, that makes the IOC no better than the government hosting the 2008 Games.

Can one voice make a difference?

Here’s hoping it can.

Online petition can be found here

In a Class AAA State championship high school baseball game in Cartersville, Georgia, pitcher Cody Martinfelt that home plate umpire was calling the balls and strikes unfairly and in fact had rung him and his teammates up for 9 consecutive strikeouts against..

Trailing 7-1 in the 4th inning Martin, allegedly conspired with catcher Matt Hill to send a message to the umpire by introducing him to a fastball up close and personal.

When Martin goes into his windup Hill has positioned himself at home with his glove hand high. As the ball is released, Hill drop’s down into the dirt ‘expecting’ a curveball and a fastball sails clear over his head smashing the home plate umpire directly in the facemask, rocking him back and forth slightly but ultimately cause no real damage, maybe a small headache later on that evening.

Martin and Hill deny planning it and claim it was a “mixup” of the signals.

Georgia High School Association executive director Ralph Swearngin however, after watching video of the incident believed the act was premeditated and fined the school $1000 while placing the baseball team on “severe warning status.”

The hometown fans however may have agreed with the players assesment, visible applauses and horn toots are heard immediately following the incident from what would have been a pretty lifeless crowd at this point in the game.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The advantage for switch hitters is that they are always able to be on the opposite side of the plate as to the pitcher’s throwing arm, thus allowing the hitter to see the ball for a slightly longer time period.

Against Brooklyn when Ralph Henriquez, their designated hitter came to the plate after warming up as a lefty but stepped up to the plate from the right side, opposite sided to the arm in which Venditte had been throwing with up to that point in the game.

Venditte then switched his glove to his left hand, to which Henriquez crossed the plate again while Venditte once more did the same to his glove hand.

This went on for a few more comical turns at which point the managers and umpires had to confer on the proper course of action before the game could proceed.

The umpires ruled that a person and pitcher could only switch sides of the plate or throwing arm’s once per at bat and that the hitter had to declare his course of action first.

Henriquez struck out on four pitches. Check mate.

The value of an ambidextrous pitcher has got to be enormous for the simple fact that they have two arms to tire out.

If this kid has any talent and brain whatsoever he could be the prototype for a new kind of athlete. Imagine a basketball player being able to drain three’s with both hand’s and a golfer drilling shots from both sides of the tee, one side being able to drive the ball with more power and the other with more control.

Let the breeding begin.

I was a pitcher and played first base in my teenage pinnacle years. As a pitcher I was mediocre, I was tall which was good for playing first base because I could stretch far but I was never able to use my height to generate enough pitch speed to be intimidating in that regard off of the mound. I was however very erratic with my control and would occasionally throw a pitch and have it wind up somewhere over the backstop. If anything the batter’s were kept on their toes against me.

When I was in grade seven or eight my team was playing out of town and my dad, who was out of the picture f

Anyhow on this day our regular pitcher who was ten times better of a pitcher than me was away somewhere and I was on the hill the whole game.

In the fourth or fifth inning with two outs and a man on first and third I took a line drive off of an aluminium baseball bat in the groin. Before we go any further I have two questions;

A. Do you know how much closer a pitcher is to home in fastball than baseball?

B. Do you know how hard an aluminium baseball bat can propel an object?

Ok I know what your thinking. Some of you are wondering if I was wearing a cup, a jock. Unfortunately no I wasn’t. I had never been hit in the groin like that before plus I was a bit crazy. I was a goalie in hockey and I would sometimes forget my cup at home and play without one. Darwin award considerations.

As it was though I hit the mound faster than Tara Patrick falling to my knees and sitting on my heels.

A crowd encircled me and as I regained my composure the umpire signalled for an out.

The ball was still lodged in my groin do to my body position and had never actually touched the ground , the inning was over and that ladies and gentlemen is my greatest, most painful and attention gathering catch.

After the game my dad stated that he was getting me a cup and jockstrap.

My dad went away again the next day. He never did get me that cup.

As it is I broke my thumb almost 4 months ago and it doesn’t bend very much yet, It just stays straight like some crazed terminal hitchhiker.

My days believing that if I just put out the effort I could have a long and illustrious career playing baseball.. Even if I get full or even most movement back I still have a plate and four screws holding it together.

I never actually played a day of organized baseball in my life. Circumstances didn’t allow it. The town I grew up in didn’t have baseball or football leagues.

Still though, I’m 28 and figured I could learn to throw a knuckle ball and pitch in the big leagues till I was 48. Lol. Craziness.

Either way, I just loved the sport. Baseball I like to say was my first love and I still believe that today. I want to be Tom Hanke on the hill for the Toronto Blue Jays in grade five, thick black glasses and all. Instead I had to settle for being a poor (wo) man’s Jenni Finch throwing grapefruit size bolders around and calling it fastball.

I never got to play baseball untill two years ago when I stumbled on a video game in open beta in what was then called Ultimate Baseball Online.

Online baseball?

Not only that but it is competitive online baseball.

The game is a massive multiplayer online role playing game. Role playing in the sense that you create a character, play as an individual member of a team in pickup games (PUGS) growing and levelling your character as you play and gain experience.

For me, this game was love at first sight. I like video games but this is what I play. Not CoD, not WoW, Not CS. Online baseball.

Like WoW and other multiplayer online games, players act as an individual member of a team. Characters are levelled as the user’s player gains EXP through pickup games (PUGS) or events such as tournaments, mini tounraments and the main league events.

MVPS (levels 90-99), AllStars (60-89),Majors (30-59)), Minors (10-29) and Rookies (0-9). Rookies can’t play in the main server. They have their own server where they can learn to play without the pressure of the hardcore gamers. Lots of ‘Noobs’ in the RK server.

When you get out of the rookie server and graduate to the Minor you have the option of joining and creating teams and playing in leagues and tournaments, which in my opinion is where the real fun begins.

If you would like to check out the game, Cal Ripken’s Real Baseball (www.playrealbaseball.com) look me up if you get hooked.

Megatron – Carnage Organization

Not only did the wheels come off but the driver was thrown clear from the wreck and none of the passengers were wearing seat belts.

As a Maple Leaf fan, I absolutely love this. If I was a Senator fan reading this, my level of disgust and sickness in the pit of my stomach would be boiling over ten fold knowing their misery is my silver lining to a dreadful season. It is salt in the wounds, not necessarily ground in but definitely poured on.

Of course us Leaf fans have known how hard it is to win for ages. The Leafs have had Borje Salming and Daryl Sittler put together the majority of their Hall of Fame careers as integral members of the Maple Leafs with neither even sniffing at the cup. Wendal Clark, Doug Gilmour, Pat Burns, Curtis Joseph, Dave Andrychuk and Ed Belfour each were members of good Maple Leaf teams that never won the big one or even play for it. Felix Potvin, , Vince Damphouse, Al Iafrate, even Larry Murphy and Alexander Mogilny , No Cups in Toronto.

Vancouver fans have gone through the Pavel Bure, Kirk McLean and even the Stan Smyl years. Soon Markus Nlasland and Trevor Linden will be added to that list. The Sedins and Roberto Luongo are on deck.

It took the New York Rangers 54 years since their last cup when they won in ‘94 and they haven’t been back to the dance since. In fact they’ve been downright awful for a lot of those years.

Chicago, the last time they won a Cup, the NHL was played outside on ponds* and the goalies didn’t even wear masks to protect their faces.

Philadelphia, Boston, Minnesota,, Los Angeles, and certainly Washington fans will all tell you the same things,. Win the big one and THEN climb aboard your high horse.

Ottawa your recent existence in the NHL is still less than 20 years old and you’ve just begun your list. Zdeno Chara and Marion Hossa are a good starting pair.

Now I know there are exceptions to every rule. For every Chicago and Toronto there is a Tampa Bay, Carolina or Anaheim. To that I say, pfft, I’ll probably be dead the next time one of those three teams wins a cup again.

To Ottawa I say this; thanks for the first half and thanks for the collapse. It’s been fun.